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Once you’re absolutely sure that every bit of malware is removed, run http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/windows_repair_all_in_one.html. It is best to run it from safe mode with networking. It will want to perform a few checks before it runs its repairs… do that, then when you get to the repair section select the second option (“Reset File Permissions”) as well as all the default choices.

Did you use the registry cleaner component of Ccleaner? If so restore the registry backup it made… and stop using registry cleaners.

My guess is that the old drive used 512 byte sectors and the new drive is an advanced format drive that uses 4 KB sectors. And possibly that the old copy of Windows had not been updated to service pack one, and/or the copy of Acronis used to make the image was too old to understand advanced format drives.
So in future what I’d do is –
1. Make sure that Windows is updated to the latest service pack and that the chipset and SATA drivers are the latest version.
2. Use the drive manufacturer’s utility, the latest version of Acronis (or something similar) to clone the drive rather than image and restore. (The Western Digital version is here but most of the drive makers have something similar).

I’d be immediately running Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Anything that autoruns from your appdataroaming folder should be treated with extreme suspicion. Even more so if it has a helper program that puts back the registry key after you delete it. It’s almost certainly up to no good.

It will work with the key from the sticker. You will then have a clean copy of Windows without all the bloated, useless junk that HP includes… but you will also be missing many hardware drivers, or will be using the ones that come with Windows. These are often less capable than the latest driver from the hardware maker.
You will need to go to the HP support site for your exact model of computer and download the drivers from there. Install them in the order –
Chipset
Audio
Video
Everything else

Then check in device manager to make sure nothing is missing.

If you open device manager you will see those devices with a yellow exclamation mark on their icons. Double click on the entry, go to the “Details” tab and select “Hardware Ids” from the drop down “Property” list.
You’ll see something like –
PCIVEN_8086&DEV_1502&SUBSYS_21F317AA&REV_04
(It won’t be the same numbers, because that entry is from my laptop)
From there you can tell that the Vendor ID is 8086 and the Device ID is 1502. (These are hexadecimal numbers so you might see something like 10EC).
Once you know those two numbers, you can track down the device at http://www.pcidatabase.com and from there get the driver from the device manufacturer’s web site.
The reason I suggest this way is because the HP site for your computer doesn’t list an Ethernet driver at all.

You’ll need to open regedit and navigate to –
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionSetup

Double click on the “ServicePackSourcePath” key and change the value data to read –
%windir%ServicePackFiles

Microsoft have a Fixit tool for Windows Firewall problems at http://support.microsoft.com/mats/windows_firewall_diagnostic/en-us.

Are you using Norton 360?

In Start > Run enter –
sfc /scannow
This will check all the system files and replace any that are missing, damaged or the wrong version.

Might be worth turning off the option that causes XP to automatically reboot after an error. It wouldn’t have solved the problem by itself, but at least it would stop at the blue screen and let you read the error message.
Go to System Properties > Advanced Tab > Startup and Recovery Settings button > and uncheck “Automatically restart” in the System Failure section.

Another useful tool for getting the error message during a spell of constant rebooting… a camera and a nimble trigger finger.

Aaah… sorry… it is “Max Icon Cache”. Just the one entry.

PSPad (http://www.pspad.com/en/) probably has too many features to rate as “simple”, but it counts characters… choose File Info from the File menu.

I don’t think that registry entry exists in a default XP installation. Without the registry entry, XP uses a default value of 500, which works OK until XP gets too big. The “Max Cached Icons” “Max Icon Cache” entry is only needed to make XP use a value other than 500.

[Edited to fix a silly mistake. Thanks to Terence Hines]

It could be that XP’s icon cache is damaged, or that its value in the registry is too low. (It could also be that the registry entry has been removed by a registry cleaner).
The easiest way to rebuild the icon cache is to change the screen’s “Color Quality” from 32 bit to 16 bit and back again. This is done on the Settings tab of Display Properties.
To increase the size of the icon cache, go to

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionexplorer

and increase the value of “Max Icon Cache” to “4096”.
A little web searching for “increase icon cache” will give you links to REG files or scripts that will automate the process.